I’ve struggled with insomnia for so long as I can bear in mind. I’ve tried principally each sleep aid available on the market, plus I would like a sound machine, sleep mask, blackout curtain, and weighted blanket to even start the method of making an attempt to go to sleep. So I made a decision to attempt one thing new.
Earlier than mattress, on and off for the previous a number of months, I have been carrying Somnee, a wearable sleep tech headband that goals to map the mind utilizing EEG (electroencephalogram) sensors to ship individualized therapeutic stimulation to assist promote sleep.
The rechargeable headband fees nightly on a dock, that includes sticky hydrogel electrodes for the band that should be changed each few nights. Nightly, I wore the Somnee for quarter-hour, the place my mind was “mapped” utilizing these EEG sensors and Somnee’s algorithms to provide a 15-minute customized therapeutic stimulation (particularly, tACs, or transcranial alternating present stimulation) session at bedtime.
{Photograph}: Molly Higgins
Mainly, fixed, very low electrical currents (1 milliampere at 5 to 10 hertz) ship stimulations to the mind through hydrogel electrodes on my brow to evoke sleepiness and promote more healthy sleep at evening. Somnee claims the stimulation is customized in actual time, responding and shifting primarily based alone mind’s rhythms, in an effort to make the mind optimum for a restful evening’s sleep. The wearable tech is linked to an app (subscription required, see beneath), the place you may monitor the “part” of the session you’re in and consider session stories, log your sleep journal, and observe sleep developments over time.
Usually, I discovered myself falling asleep sooner on nights I used the machine, however not essentially staying soundly asleep all evening. I’m skeptical of simply how customized {the electrical} stimulation classes are, however Somnee was profitable in getting me to go to sleep. Though perhaps not in the best way the corporate meant. Most of all, I discovered that Somnee was a good way to enhance my sleep hygiene—that means, staying in step with a pre-bedtime routine and enacting wind-down practices to manage the physique to be prepared for sleep.
“Neural Synchrony”
{Photograph}: Molly Higgins
Somnee makes use of sensors and algorithms to get a normal map of your mind and delivers a 15-minute, customized electrical stimulation session. The identical noninvasive electrical stimulation method is used for every thing from focused muscle restoration to extra normal issues like nervousness. The machine’s stimulation reacts in actual time to every particular person’s mind rhythms to optimally steadiness “sleep inertia, length, and depth,” in keeping with Somnee’s website .
